5 Joint Restrictions that could be Affecting your Mobility and Performance

In Crossfit programming, there is revolution in the way coaches and trainers look at movement. Most Crossfit exercises and workouts emphasize what I call global quadruple extension. This means the athlete extends the foot/ankle, knee, hip, and the thoracic spine. The inability to get to this position results in poor performance and pain. The following is a list of joints that I find are routinely restricted and prevent athletes from moving efficiently into this globally extended position. Keep in mind that dysfunction at one joint leads to dysfunction throughout the entire body.

Enhance Your Performance: 5 of the Best Mobility Drills for Crossfitters

Understanding your scapular health and using these mobility exercises will help you to boost performance and prevent injury in the long run.

Your scapulae (scaps for short) are the foundation of your shoulder joint and these flat wing like bones help to anchor your shoulder to your torso. Any exercise where you move your upper arm utilises your scapulae in some way and any weakness in the 17 different muscles that connect to it will translate into weakness in the movement. They are an incredibly mobile bone, tilting and rotating to accommodate the wide range of movement of the shoulder joint.

Here’s a quick test for you: grab a small straight object like a pen or toothbrush, one in each hand and stand up straight, shoulders relaxed. Are your objects pointing straight ahead or inwards?

Julien Pineau: Strength, Muscular Imbalance & Intensity in Crossfit

Julien Pineau, coach at CrossFit Invictus and Strongfit discusses muscular and strength imbalances, embracing pain, the role of intensity within CrossFit and the difference between the US and the European Crossfit scenes.

I realised that it was not about volume, but intensity and that’s what has always been really important to me…and also just the understanding of you being tough and knowing how to switch that on.

Stretching is a vital part of improving your range of motion, flexibility and assisting the recovery process.

Warming up and stretching are two different things, but stretching exercises can help to prepare you for a WOD and improve your recovery.

A proper warm-up will help any athlete have a better session with the weights and equipment and greatly reduce the risk of an injury.

Snatch Mobility Tips to Improve your Lift and Movement

Using Mobility to Avoid Injury and Increase your Performances

At the very core of Crossfit is the principle that movement is an essential component of a healthy, functional and successful human life. MAKE TIME FOR MOBILITY!

The pertinence of great posture and mobility work should never be underrated, and every Crossfitter should specifically set aside time to work on these areas. This doesn’t mean five minutes of half baked stretching at the end of a session. It equates to a serious analysis of your own movements and techniques, and specialised focus on how they can be enhanced.

‘Improving your ability to move well will increase the efficiency with which you perform in Crossfit.’

From a long, barbarous set of Wall Balls to your next (or first) Ring Muscle-Up, every exercise involves the ability to move confidently and competently. Crossfit is a competitive sport, and Crossfitters like to see results. We want to observe the blood, sweat and tears that we put into our training manifested as cold hard PR results on the whiteboards of our Box walls.

Ankle Mobility: How and Why you Need to Improve Yours Today

Imagine a bridge without stable pillars. It can hardly hold itself, and will collapse when burdened with weight. It’s the same with your ankles. How can your body squat heavy weights if your supporting limbs aren’t able to keep it safe?

An important joint to work on

Think about all the movements which are directly and indirectly influenced by tight ankles. By improving your ankle mobility, you are increasing the range of motion for your:

Squat

Clean

Snatch

Deadlift

Boxjump

Wallball

3 Simple Ways to Improve Your Front Rack Mobility

Front rack mobility in competition

Front squats, thrusters, the clean and the jerk. What do these all have in common? They all require you to be in the front rack position, and demand excellent mobility to do them well.

Learn how to:

Improve flexion/extension

Decrease tension in the shoulders/lats

Improve your thoracic position

Mobility Tips: Easy Fixes for your Back Squat

If something doesn’t feel right…then something isn’t moving right. Do something about it before it is too late.

About The Author

Editor-In-Chief at BOXROX. I come from a background of rugby and weightlifting. Growing up in the English Lake District, I spent a great deal of time swimming in its stunning lakes and rivers. In 2015 my brothers and I became the first people to swim the 145km length of the River Eden, from source to mouth, in 9 days. We also swam the Corryvreckan whirlpool, the third largest in the world, and Crossfit is a huge part of my training for these events.

By Hana Kucharova

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